Faithful To His Calling

October 05, 2006|By SUSAN SMIGIELSKI ACKER, Special to the Daily Press

A 92-year-old Newport News man keeps a weekly appointment to minister to inmates in Williamsburg.

The Rev. Dr. William Livingston of Newport News is 92 years old and believes he still has a calling to fulfill. So every Wednesday morning, he travels to the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail in Williamsburg to minister to inmates.

"In Matthew 25:35, Jesus said, 'When I was in prison, you visited me,' " the Presbyterian minister said. "When an inmate asks me why I visit, I say, 'There is not a single line in the Bible that tells you about Jesus' physical description. So if Jesus looks like you, then it was worth my whole day coming to see you.'"

He offers one-on-one counseling to inmates, including mentoring.

Maj. Sherry Castellaw, assistant superintendent at the jail, has worked with Livingston for more than 25 years.

"The inmates really look forward to his visits," she said. "I believe they have a genuine respect for him.

"Dr. Livingston is one of the jail's most faithful volunteers. You can set your watch by him."

Born in North Carolina in 1913, the last of six children, Livingston learned early that age is just a number.

"My mother had me when she was 43, which was very unusual then," he said. "She did not marry until she was 32, which was also unusual. My father was in the Spanish-American War."

His father later owned a grocery store. He also wanted his children to have an education.

"Papa knew the wave of the future was education," Livingston said.

After graduating in 1935 from Davidson College in Davidson, N.C., he went to Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, graduating in 1938.

His first assignment was assistant pastor at the Old Stone Church in Lewisburg, W.Va., which dates to 1796. A painting of the church hangs on the wall of his home.

The second assignment was as a pastor in a West Virginia orphanage, where he met Sarah, a camp counselor who would become his wife of 66 years. He describes their wedding as if it were yesterday.

"We were married on Sept. 10 in 1940, on a Tuesday," he said. "We had 14 preachers at our ceremony. After the bridal breakfast we drove in our black Chevy to Natural Bridge. It was the end of a perfect day.

"We also had 'Just Married' written on our car in Ivory soap, which did not come off for years."

Their first church together was near Staunton, followed by a seven-year assignment to Logan, W.Va., ministering to coal miners. That's where a delegation from Hampton found him in the early 1950s and requested his help in building the First Presbyterian Church of Hampton.

Livingston talked with a senior Presbyterian minister prior to making his decision.

"He asked me if I had ever been a part of a building program and I said no," he said. "His answer was 'Well, not many get out alive.'"

Sarah Livingston began teaching at Hampton High, and the family settled in the Dandy area of York County. The Livingstons lived in their home for 39 years until Hurricane Isabel destroyed it in September 2003.

The couple evacuated before the storm hit, staying with their daughter in Richmond.

"We got a call from our neighbor, Henry Hogg, who said it didn't look good," Livingston said with a heavy sigh. "We had 23 trees down and we had to use a chain saw to cut our way through just to get to our house. It was destroyed and we were homeless."

They stayed for 10 days in the guest house of their friends John and June Yates.

Prior to the hurricane, the couple had put down a deposit for an apartment in the Warwick Forest retirement community in Newport News, so that's where they eventually settled.

Just months after they moved in, Livingston fell and broke his back.

"I was like a baby," he said, shaking his head. "I couldn't walk or do anything. I thought that was the end of the road for me.

"But I had wonderful therapists that kept reminding me that it was just a temporary setback."

Livingston rides a stationary bicycle every morning for about one hour. He feels exercise is the best way to keep fit so that he can continue his ministry. While he was recovering, he stayed in the assisted living section of Warwick Forest, and his wife remained in their apartment.

She visited him every morning. After he recovered, he returned home.

"That was marvelous," he said. "I've been sleeping with that girl for so long." *